It’s pretty alarming to find out that millions of Christians, especially Evangelical Christians, are not going to vote. People who listen to the Biblical commands to help the poor and to be a good neighbor, should not turn their backs on God’s expectations of His people to be fully involved in all aspects of life.
There’s the old joke about the God-fearing man caught in a flood. His neighbors offered him a ride out during an evacuation, but he turns them down saying “God will provide for me.” As the water rises, he retreats to the second floor. A rowboat comes by his window and offers to rescue him. But, again, he refuses saying “God will provide for me.” They leave and yet the waters still rise. Now the man is on his roof and a helicopter comes by and lowers a harness. Yet he refuses to leave saying “God will provide for me.”
He is swept away from his roof and drowns.
He now finds himself in heaven at the feet of God. He is sorely disappointed asking God, “Lord! I loved you and trusted you and you did not provide!”
God responds, “I sent you a car, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What more could you want?” /end
That certainly goes a long way to explaining why millions of Christians are sitting on their hands rather than being actively involved in a system of self-governance that Founding Father John Adams described:
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
Starting at 6:09 above: “… any other our founding fathers assumed that the Christians would Steward, they would keep the Republic, they would uh take it seriously enough to defend a nation that was built off of judeo-christian worldview values – the Bible. Unlike any other place on Earth this country is worth fire for, and for crying out loud, uh you can’t do it in North Korea. You don’t have a constitutional republic there. You can’t do it in Saudi Arabia. But you can do it in America. And instead of us protecting and defending it and advancing it, Christians have become lazy apathetic and they’ve said things like this … oh I don’t get involved in politics which is ridiculous. Every time you fill up your gas tank in California you’re dealing with politics per gallon … ”
I urge you to watch the whole interview between Dennis Prager (practicing Jew) and Pastor Jack Hibbs. Christians may have several reasons for not voting — from dislike of both candidates to belief that “God will provide”. But Faith, dear Bible follower, isn’t just a noun. It’s a verb.
Just as a person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead, so faith that does nothing is dead! ~~ James 2:26
And beware, too, that when you do nothing, you leave room for people like this to further browbeat Christians to stay away from the voting booth.
VCG, as The New York Times described them in 2018, is “a group of progressive Christians” whose “goal is to urge Christians to vote for Democrats and counter Trump administration policies that oppose their religious beliefs – especially on immigration, health care, and poverty.” And just to demonstrate how far left they are, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) has previously served in an “informal” advisory role for the group.
Not surprisingly, VCG is all-in on the “women’s rights are under attack” narrative, too, dropping this Julia Roberts-narrated special interest ad actually trying to make it sound like women only have “one place in America” left where “they still have the right to choose” – the ballot box. Further, the ad implies that women nationwide would be taking risks by voting differently than their husbands in the presidential election, something that is patently absurd.
In the voting booth, women still have the right to choose.
Thank you to Julia Roberts for helping us make the choice clear – November 5th, let’s all choose a new path forward.#progressive #progressivechristianity #voteblue #harris2024 #prowomen #evangelicalsforharris pic.twitter.com/fchO3yj1na
— Vote Common Good (@VoteCommon) October 28, 2024
Wow. Could these “Progressive Christians” (oxymoron, I know) condescend any more? Yes, of course they could — they could have had those women in robes from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Democrats are busy lecturing men on how toxic and woman-hating they are if they don’t vote for Potemkin Kamala and women are being told if they vote for her they gotta keep it secret or else their hubbies will beat them.
And, frankly, to pretend that women’s rights hinge on making sure there is no limit on abortion – legal through all nine months of fetal gestation and even for minor females without parental involvement (you know, like the bill Tampon Walz signed into law) – is the only thing between women as free citizens and being sent to breeder camps is beyond just insulting. It is evil.
The Left has tried shaming Christians into not voting for decades. And for the last nine years we’ve heard the drumbeat that No Real Christian could vote for Trump because he’s (checks notes), divorced, philanderer, mistreats women … yadda yadda yadda.
Old Christian bumpersticker: “Christians are not perfect, just saved.” And yet the steady drumbeat of “How could you!” from people who don’t blink twice at the warts on their candidates should make people who know their Bible laugh in the face of the fake pearl clutchers. The Bible (and life) is full of flawed people who do noble things. God has a tendency to choose to work through flawed individuals.
If you’re standing on roof with water threatening to wash you away, you shouldn’t care if the guy or gal piloting the helicopter once cheated on their spouse. Grab that harness.
And get thee to the polls, Christians. Be a good Steward of this nation.
featured image original graphic by Darleen Click using Adobe Firefly
Cameron says: “I sent you a car, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What more could you want?”
“But FEMA sent them away.”
“Oh right. Sorry about that.”
Bob says: Thank you for your post; perhaps a few will be persuaded!
Having had debates with fundamentalists, I can attest that their decision is based on their New Testament understanding: true Christians should not participate in worldly politics. Since they were governed by an authoritarian Roman government, that made sense during the first century.
The do not seem persuaded that our Constitution (based on biblical principles) is the law of the land, and that one of our political parties supports rule of law (and the other does not!).
GWB says: It made sense for an intervening 17 centuries, too! Every government until ours* was “authoritarian.” That’s what was so radical (and so VERY Christian) about the US Constitution (and hinted at in the Declaration of Independence) – it made the people, themselves, sovereign.
BTW, that “people are sovereign” comes out of the Christian Protestant Enlightenment, as the Church was returned to the idea that every single Christian is his own priest before God, with Christ as the only High Priest. If that was true for our salvation, then it really should be true for our lives (our vocations, in some views) within the world, as well. And (to link to the Adams quote) you should be trusted to act in accordance with the Law because Christian love covers the whole of the law, and you desire that.
(* Arguably, the Magna Carta puts some power in the hands of the people and some in the hands of Parliament. But it doesn’t really make the people the actual authority – the dude on the throne is still king.)
GWB says: OK, first…
“a group of progressive Christians”
If they’re Progressive, they’re not Christian. Period. Progressivism is a Christian heresy. It is anti-Christian in every aspect, though they’ve done a bang-up job of convincing people otherwise. They are ultimately Marxists, and Marx was explicitly anti-Christian. But that is the biggest problem with America today: loads of people who are nominally Christian are really Progressive but think otherwise.
Second…
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
This is a favorite quote of mine. But it needs deeper exploration than simply “oh, I know what morals are.” The reason Christianity is the cornerstone of a free republic is that it places the obligation for moral behavior squarely upon the person, AND their expectation of obeying the law out of that morality instead of merely self-interest. IOW, the Law is good, so it should be obeyed – instead of merely feared and thereby obeyed.
A common accusation against Christians is that they don’t live up to some supposed perfection for which they advocate. Of course, Christianity actually says otherwise. Christianity acknowledges human sinfulness and seeks to redeem the sinner, then to have the love of Christ change their hearts so they desire to do right. That desire to “do the right thing” because it IS right is what makes Western Civilization different than most other civilizations (where the law is the law because the master says it is the law).
Now to Christians and the Republic….
Something you didn’t mention that some churches use to sort of browbeat their members into not voting their Christian conscience is this:
Romans 13:1-7, particularly v. 1a
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
This is supported by numerous Old Testament scriptures about God establishing every authority for His purpose. Luther (understandably) wrote about submitting to the authorities except when they actually demand you violate God’s Word. And a lot of Protestant/Reformed churches will tell you that revolution is against God’s Word unless the gov’t is telling you to deny Christ. (And their interpretation of that is much narrower than it should be.)
But, they all forget a huge thing from our Founding: of the people, by the people, and for the people. Note that in America, the people ARE the monarch, the sovereign. That means you are the authority God has placed in power in the United States of America, AND in her states. That turns things on its head.
Now, instead of reading the Scriptures about obeying the authorities, you should be looking at the Scriptures that tell the authorities what THEIR responsibility is. These involve doing justice and defending the nation and leading it in proper paths (that would be morals). If you’re not voting for those things in accord with Biblical principles, then you’re not doing it right. And if you’re not getting involved because “politics is dirty” then you’re abdicating your duty as a citizen of your state and your country.
That brings us to the issue of Progressivism replacing Christianity as the religion in our country. Because one of the heresies of Progressivism is that the Christian virtues should be placed upon the people as a whole, instead of individually, and therefore the government should take the place of individual charity and the gov’t should practice compassion and mercy in the place of justice. Even in the Old Testament charity was not something the gov’t took care of, but something each individual was supposed to do – despite God using terms like “Israel does not…”. He’s placing the fault on the people as a whole for them turning away from his commands as a whole (except for some remnant). But the gov’t certainly should not (in a nation full of Christians who ARE the sovereigns) be advocating for things that go against personal charity, or for things like murder of infants.
So, going deeper than your post, Darleen, there are REASONS we should not listen to the “obey authority” folks who tell us not to get involved. We NEED to be involved because we ARE the gov’t. And we should do all we can, not to coerce anyone, but to convince them what is right and true and good. You know, evangelize. And, thusly, bring them all back to being good sovereigns of our country when they vote.
Frank says: From my little perch it seems to me that Christians are led to behave in a disconnected way because they are not of this world. They are to be like foreigners in an alien land. The world is a fallen one. To be involved is to join with the sins of the world. The stupidity in all of it is the sheer ignorance. By not voting, Christians are literally, in great part, responsible for putting a target on their children’s heads. They are empowering those who hate them with the tools to destroy and enslave them. Gone are the days of the courageous church leaders who stood up and spoke out against very powerful evil individuals and organizations. They would rather follow federal guidelines that prohibit church leaders from inciting civil unrest with the loss of tax exemptions than to inform and advise their congregations.
5 Comments